Today, many printing devices includes “Job retention printing capability”. A detailed explanation of job retention printing is described by the patent entitled “Multiple copy printer with print job retention”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,160,629. That patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Job retention, generally, refers to a printer's ability to store a received print job locally in the printer's local storage device (e.g., the printer's local disk drive). The print job is printed when certain conditions are met. There are a several types of retention printing.
A first type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “quick copy printing”. According to quick copy printing, a printer stores a received multi-copy print job and prints the copies. Thereafter, a walk-up user can cause additional copies to be printed by interacting with the printer's control panel.
A second type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “Proof and Hold” printing. According to “Proof and Hold” printing, a printer stores a received multi-copy print job and prints a limited number of copies (typically one copy). Thereafter, a walk-up user can cause the rest of the copies to be printed by “releasing them” from the printer's control panel.
A third type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “private” printing. According to private printing, a printer stores a received print job and delays printing until a privacy code is entered by a walk-up user at the printer's control panel.
A fourth type of retention printing is commonly referred to as “simple retention” printing. According to simple retention printing, a received print job is simply stored and not printed. Future printing of the job is then available to walk up users via the printer's control panel.
For purposes of this application, a print job that causes a printer to perform any one of the four types of retention printing described above may generally be referred to herein as a “retention job”. Thus, for example, a print job that invokes “quick copy” printing is a “retention job”. Additionally, a printer that supports retention printing may be referred to herein as a “retention printer”.
Many personal computers include software (e.g., a word processing application and print driver) that allow a user to generate and print a document using retention printing. Typically, to print the document, the user provides certain input to the personal computer. The input specifies the printer that is to be used for printing, the number of copies that are to be printed, and the type of retention printing. In response to this user input, the personal computer generates a retention job that describes the document and transmits the job to the selected printer.
The user, after the retention job has been transmitted to the selected printer, may then wish to print the same version of a document using a second printer. This can present a significant problem to the user. One way a user can solve this problem is for him/her to make use of the personal computer to recreate the retention job and have it sent to second printer. Unfortunately, this solution can often be inconvenient to the user and can cost the user valuable time. Additionally, because two different source files are used to print each copy of the document, the user may not be assured that the same version of the document is printed. What is needed is an easier way for a user to perform this task.